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Jordan threatens Israel with ‘massive conflict’ over sovereignty plan

“If Israel really annexed [Judea and Samaria] in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with Jordan,” King Abdullah II told a German magazine.

By Ebin Sandler, World Israel News

Jordan’s king claimed on Friday that Israel’s plans to annex Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria would lead to a “massive conflict.”

“What would happen if the Palestinian National Authority collapsed? There would be more chaos and extremism in the region,” King Abdullah II told the German magazine Der Spiegel. “If Israel really annexed [Judea and Samaria] in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with Jordan.”

Abdullah claimed he didn’t “want to make threats” related to backing out of the peace treaty Jordan signed with Israel in 1994, but added that Jordan aligned with “countries in Europe and the international community” whose foreign ministers are committed to blocking Israel’s declaration of sovereignty over territory it already controls.

Israel took possession of Judea and Samaria from Jordan in 1967 when it defeated the Hashemite Kingdom and three other Arab nations that attacked the Jewish state during the Six-Day War.

Israel is currently preparing to inaugurate a new government, which agreed in advance to move forward with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to declare sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, where around half a million Israelis live.

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In an April poll by the Israeli Voice Index, a majority of Jewish Israelis expressed support for the annexation plan, with 71 percent of respondents on the political right supporting the move.

President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan supports Israel’s right to annex Jewish communities, provided Israel agrees to negotiate with the Palestinians during a four-year window regarding the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) rejected the U.S. peace plan sight unseen, despite its provision of $50 billion in economic incentives and its commitment to Palestinian statehood.

In a recent statement quoted by The Associated Press, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi “stressed the need for the international community and the European Union in particular to take practical steps that reflect the rejection of any Israeli decision to annex.”